Subscribe

IT infrastructure push 'inevitable'

Farzana Rasool
By Farzana Rasool, ITWeb IT in Government Editor.
Johannesburg, 10 Feb 2012

President Jacob Zuma's focus on infrastructure development in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday bodes well for the ICT sector, says the Black IT Forum (BITF).

“We do welcome the SONA. We think that in the infrastructure development projects, inevitably there are going to be ICT projects included,” says secretary general of the forum Motse Mfuleni.

For the year 2012 and beyond, Zuma says government will engage in a massive infrastructure development drive, which will be driven by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission.

“We have chosen five major geographically-focused programmes, as well as projects focusing on health and basic education infrastructure, information and communication technologies and regional integration.”

Technology backing

The president briefly mentioned SA's bid to host the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope in partnership with eight other African countries, urging citizens to support the bid.

He outlined projects dealing with rail, road, water, mining, agriculture, electricity and human settlements, but did not mention any ICT initiatives.

However, Mfuleni says a lot of industries are driven by IT and technology. “Even if you talk about mining infrastructure or road and rail, it will include IT and ICTs. We want to call on all major ICT companies to take advantage of the infrastructure projects and find the IT opportunities.”

He explained that if government is talking about infrastructure, it's talking about modern infrastructure, and that has to be backed by technology, meaning the roll-out of broadband networks, for example.

“Last year, the focus of the SONA was on jobs, but there was no 'how'. This year, we see the 'how', because the infrastructure focus will see the creation of jobs.”

Zuma said the massive investment in infrastructure must leave more than just power stations, rail-lines, dams and roads. It must industrialise the country, generate skills and boost much-needed job creation.

“We welcome the infrastructure projects mentioned by the president, but there are question marks over how we are going to find an additional R330 billion per year to pay for them,” says Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.

Imperative broadband

“I was disappointed that SONA ignored the 'knowledge economy' part of the theme that was punted. Its focus seemed to be on labour-intensive infrastructure projects, which are much needed, but little was made of the fact that a critical part of an economy's functioning depends on high-speed broadband communications infrastructure,” says DA shadow communications minister Marian Shinn.

She explains that businesses are desperate to have affordable, plentiful broadband communications to expand their reach and offerings into local and global markets.

“A broadband communications infrastructure is as important as roads and rail, perhaps more so, because if businesses are hindered by poor communication with their markets, they will not have the volume of goods to transport, and the transport services will be hampered in the age and efficiency of their operations.”

Share